Again she listens.
Again she allows his voice to caresses her ears, and echo within her, and to settle into her bones.
"To...protect me? By yelling at me...by berating me? And the choices I already made." Alice turns her head, her eyelids close and she shakes her head, she raises her head, and turns her eyeless sockets towards the Burned Man, "....so you took it out on me. How is that okay?" She questions, feeling. She didn't know. She blamed herself, as he had blamed her....but he, now...was this to sooth her ego, or was it the truth?
"I refuse to be one of those people." She says forcefully to the air, to the night and to him, but she doesn't elaborate.
"I have been taken advantage of....and I'll probably will be again. That's life- or unlife-or whatever!" she shouts, "....unless....would you want to see me go cold? To close myself--my heart off from you and everyone else. Just to make sure this wont ever happen again?"